Did God create “man” as a male or female?
Table for Five: Bereshit
In partnership with the Jewish Journal of Los Angeles
Edited by Nina Litvak & Salvador Litvak, the Accidental Talmudist
And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. – Gen. 1:27
Rabbi Janet Madden
Malibu Jewish Center and Synagogue
We begin with the assurance that we are created in the image of the Holy One, a concept designed to be something to which we turn and return–like the Torah itself–since the second half of the statement appears to contract the first. Adding to the complexity of the relationship between the Holy One and humanity, Vayikra Rabbah 14:1 expands on Torah’s two-part statement, explaining both that “the earthling” is created “androgynous” and that “the earthling was created with two faces. [Divinity] sawed him/them, and two backs were formed, a back for the male and a back for the female.” From this surgical model of separation, we can extrapolate that we were once whole in a way that we can only imagine, that humans are forever severed from full unity with one another and that we are also separate and different from the Divine. All of these implications provide much to ponder. But when set against Beresheit Rabbah 8:1’s teaching that the initial human creation was a golem–a soulless, unformed thing, embryonic, yet full of potential–how can we not feel profound awe? Whoever we are, whatever physical bodies in which we find ourselves, we are assured that when the Divine breathes into the earthling, our potential is activated into reality: we become so much more than our earthly bodies. As the Or HaChaim teaches: our outward, physical form holds within it the hidden, the spiritual and therefore the true image of the Divine.
Benjamin Elterman
Screenwriter, Essayist, Speechwriter at Mitzvahspeeches.com
Clearly the big question is, did Hashem create “man” as a male or a female? Later in verse 2:21 we get the famous line that Hashem made Adam fall asleep and He created Eve from his rib. Except the word for rib, mitzalosayon can also mean “from his side.” The Midrash expounds on this word commenting, “Adam was created with two faces [i.e. male and female persons combined.]” This clarifies our verse in that man and woman resembled a conjoined twin, created as both male and female. So this leads to the question, why did Hashem make the split?
There are two ways we can think about a relationship. One is a partnership. 1+1=2. I get what I want, maybe you get what you want. And together we achieve more than if we had stayed separate. Then there is a covenant. This is an agreement that isn’t about what I can get, but what we can be together. This equation is 0.5+0.5=1. Or 0.25+0.75=1. Or whatever permutation is necessary to reach unity. Healthy relationships care about what is best for everyone involved because it is as if they are a part of you, like you’re connected. And this is why we’re created in the image of God. Because He is always searching for ways to restore unity with us. Reconnecting with our soulmate is just a first step.
Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn
BCC – Rabbanit at Netivot Shalom and Hospital Chaplain
What does it mean to be created betzelem Elokim? I recently explored this with students in a Master’s program for Spiritual Care. Our context, however, was not the usual one; we were reading the verse amidst mental illness. How can we apply this belief when we are in the midst of a mental health crisis? Or when our loved one is? When God forbid we are supporting someone who doesn’t feel like themselves, let alone reflecting the Divine? To add to the complexity, mental illness can even present with taking this verse too far. Which is why, when I work as a chaplain in psychiatric emergency settings, I am sensitive to the reality that religion can offer comfort and resilience…or God forbid, unintentionally trigger worsening symptoms. There is no simple answer, so the students’ answers varied between having self-compassion and forgiveness, to reflecting on practicing self-care rather than self-harm, to thoughts of guilt, unworthiness, and self-negation. I would humbly suggest that God gives us this definition of what it is to be human specifically for those moments when we or others are at our lowest points. In crisis, untethered from our source, disconnected from our own worthiness. Because it is then that we are least likely to remember from where we come. It’s easy to internalize “betzelem Elokim” when we feel whole and holy. The challenge is to develop this theology in how we treat ourselves and others when divinity feels out of reach.
David Sacks
Happy Minyan of Los Angeles
Imagine the Garden of Eden just after it was just created. What do you think it looked like? The lushest, most exotic arrangement of flowers, fruit trees, and plant life that ever existed, right? Actually… the Garden of Eden was totally barren. There wasn’t a bit of greenery in sight. Then God inspired Adam with a sense that there was something missing, and that his need could be answered through prayer.
And so, Adam prayed.
And it rained. And suddenly, every fruit tree, plant, and flower that had already been created, but existed just below the ground, rocketed up, and the Garden of Eden transformed into the lushest, most exotic assortment of visual riches that ever existed.
From this we learn something amazing about God.
The very first thing He wanted us to know,
Was that He hears our prayers,
And for us to know,
He answers them,
In the most beautiful way.
Rabbi Tova Leibovic-Douglas
@Rabbi_Tova, Founder Of The Ritual House
Our world would be more whole if more people knew this part of the creation story.
Most of us learned the second version, where Adam is created first and Eve from his side. While that story holds meaning, it has often been used to justify hierarchy, patriarchy, diminishing us all—especially women.
But before that, there is another story.
In Genesis 1:27, the Divine creates humanity in the Divine image: male and female God created them. This is not a story of one before the other, but a vision of sacred balance. The ancient sages and mystics understood this verse as revealing a cosmic truth: every human being is made in the image of the Divine, and within each of us are both masculine and feminine energies. These energies are divine qualities, spiritual currents that live within all of us, waiting to be honored and brought into harmony. Neither is higher, neither is lesser. Both are essential for wholeness—in ourselves, in community, and in the world.
Perhaps we have forgotten this truth because one story became louder. Or perhaps we are afraid to remember. But remembering is sacred. You, me, the stranger, the neighbor—we each embody the Divine. We each have that spark within. And that remembering may be what heals our world.
With thanks to Rabbi Janet Madden, Benjamin Elterman, Rabbanit Alissa Thomas-Newborn, David Sacks and Rabbi Tova Leibovic-Douglas
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